When I saw my hairdresser a few weeks ago, he handed me an Aveda “care package” on my way out, and it included this body lotion. Normally I am anti-fragrance since I have really sensitive skin and especially when I am pregnant, but this lotion’s fragrance is amazing! It’s like Aveda but Christmas-y!

Fresh flowers have become such a treat these days! Plus, learning floral arrangement is high on my list for things I want to learn next. I follow the Farmgirl Flowers feeds on Instagram and Facebook just to see the beautiful arrangements! This holiday one is definitely inspiring my Christmas table this year!

{three} Free Shipping at The Petite Flag Shop.

A little self-promotion, but I am offering free shipping on all orders between now and Christmas at The Petite Flag Shop! There is a small Christmas collection available, including all of the above-pictured flags, plus the full range of flags available and custom orders! Use the code MERRYSHIP.

We ended up getting rained out on our original shoot date, but the day we rescheduled was nice and sunny (albeit a little windy)! And since I didn’t want to do another round of professional pictures for a maternity shoot, we did a few bump pictures too (even though I was not showing very much!).

My favorites ended up in our Christmas card, but here are a few others from the shoot!

Welcome back to Pinterest Christmas! This Pinterest Christmas blog series (in its sixth year!) started as a motivation to actually do some of the DIY projects we pinned on Pinterest & a way to share them with friends & family. Over the years other bloggers have joined & we have spent the month of December DIYing & sharing our Christmas projects. Sometimes the posts are tutorials with step-by-step instructions & other times it is simply sharing a completed project! We aren’t doing anything too formal this year, but did want to share a few festive things. You can check out past Pinterest Christmas projects here!

I know that a lot of catalogs and magazines and blogs show Christmas décor all over the house, not just in the living room with the Christmas tree. I am mixed on whether I will ever have Christmas sheets and bathroom towels, but I have liked the idea of continuing the holiday cheer into the kitchen!

This was the simplest DIY I think I have ever done. Seriously. I don’t even think it’s a true DIY. The hardest part was getting the ribbon to be the same length so that the wreaths were even on the doors. I hung a 3M Command hanger (not sponsored, they are just the best ones!) upside-down on the door (per the inspiration post), cut the ribbon, looped it around the wreath, and tied a knot. I sort of want to hang a wreath on every door we have now…

{week 28} Hello Third Trimester! This pregnancy is just flying and there are only 12(ish) weeks left!

Pretty much any time I sit down for any length of time, I start to feel Baby Foot start wiggling around, especially when I lay down to go to bed each night. That is apparently the best time for a dance party. But this week, it feels like Baby Foot is doing flips in my belly! And surprisingly, I almost always feel kicks on my right side which is where Eloise always kicked me too!

I have continued to have really mild heartburn and indigestion but nothing horrible. I can usually just wait it out or take a Tums and it will settle down. The only bummer is that one of the aggravating factors is really cold water which is basically the only type of water I want to drink these days.

And, I passed my glucose test! Hooray. Good thing because this baby is still giving me a sweet tooth!

I also have scheduled my pre-natal appointment and check-in with our doula (the same one we used with Eloise!) for the beginning of February. It seems so crazy that we are beginning to plan the birth of this baby… I should probably be thinking about packing a hospital bag (any tips for the second time around?) and getting the nursery ready!

{In case you missed it on my Instagram or Facebook, we are teaching Eloise how to play hide-and-seek. She is good at hiding (with some help) but staying quiet is definitely a steep learning curve!}

{Eloise, Sadie, and I have been walking around the block either before or after lunch these days since by the time she gets up from her nap in the afternoon it is basically dark. And just in the past week it we have gotten much colder, so its out with all of our winter gear!}

{On Friday I watched the Huskies win the Pac 12 Championship! Such a good game. Excited (and nervous) to see them play Alabama in the play-offs!}

{December means Christmas tree shopping. Eloise wasn’t too sure about all of those tall trees and spent most of the time up on Aaron’s shoulders. We did find a great tree though, its little but so cute! I decorated the top half while Eloise napped this afternoon, and Aaron and Eloise decorated the bottom half while I was at Pure Barre.}

{Christmas decorations all down from the attic! I am always amazed by how many boxes there are since it doesn’t seem like I have that many decorations!}

{Eloise sitting with her two ornaments she got this year. Every year as a kid my mom got my sister and I Christmas ornaments (many of which now hang on our tree) and it is a tradition I wanted to continue! Earlier in the week Eloise and I hit up Target and I let her choose her ornament for this year. Of course I couldn’t say no when she wanted lumberjack Santa and a lion!}

{I came home from my workout to find my two best people hanging Christmas lights. Well, Aaron was hanging Christmas lights and Eloise was dancing to the Christmas music! But then she got super distracted by my bag and insisted it be in the picture.}

{The start of the week means packing a lunch for Eloise! I have enjoyed this a surprising amount, but get back to me in May when I am packing her PB & J and goldfish crackers!}

We had a super chilly and festive weekend getting ready for Christmas! I was a little bah-humbug on Saturday and decorating anything seemed like way too much work, but by this afternoon, I was ready to get everything up. And as usual, the weekend went way too quickly!

I love the idea of personalized photograph things for Eloise since we live so far away from most of our family. I did one of these board books for Aaron (from Eloise) for Father’s Day this year and really want to do one of all of our immediate family soon! This puzzle game is super cute and I wish I would have seen it before I did all of my Christmas shopping for her. It’s definitely on her future gift list though!

While I picked up a few specific maternity pieces last month, I have been limiting myself to buying only things that will work during and after pregnancy. Since I have so little time left, it seems like such a waste to buy maternity clothes that will only get a few months’ use. I had been hearing rave reviews from this BP Striped Crewneck shirtall over the interwebs and after having it and wearing it a few times, I am sold! It is stripes (and black & white at that) so that pretty much did me in, but it works well with my bump without stretching. And, it will be a good tunic length on me post-pregnancy. It isn’t available in black & white anymore, but is in navy & red!

When we met up with some of my best girlfriends last week, I offered to bring a salad to dinner since I wasn’t feeling super inspired to cook. But, I didn’t want to show up with a box of lettuce and a bottle of salad dressing, so I got to digging on Pinterest. I found this super simple salad that uses all of my favorite things: nuts, dried cranberries, and honeycrisp apples. Seriously, the honeycrisp apples we have had all season have been amazing! And, I loved the idea that this salad recipe came with a recipe for the dressing. I don’t do it much at home (though I should!) but it is super simple to make salad dressing: add ingredients to jar, put lid on jar, shake and serve. This did not disappoint and I know it will be on our regular salad rotation!

I know I have mentioned a nursery design for Baby Foot, and since I have already accumulated most of the pieces for it, I thought I would share! The loose theme for this new nursery is travel or maps and globes which lends itself nicely to keeping things gender neutral.

If I haven’t mentioned it before, the plan is to leave the nursery next to our room and to move Eloise down one room to what is currently our office. This way the nursery is still right next door to our room (and I don’t need a monitor except for upstairs) and Eloise gets a brand-new big kid room!

Almost all of the furniture is the same from Eloise’s nursery to this new nursery. It just didn’t make sense to replace it all since it all worked so well.

{1} glider – the same Land of Nod Milo Glider which we are still in LOVE with. it is super comfy and I know that we will spend so many more hours nursing, cuddling, and reading in this chair!

{2) curtains – these metallic grey curtainsshould work well as a neutral against the striped ceiling and a tiny pop of color against the white walls. I may still need to add a blackout liner though.

{3} footstool – this faux fur onewhich is really different than the floor pouf I had for Eloise but a good height to put our feet up (so important in a nursery!).

{4} crib – this is E’s old crib and the Hudson by Babylettoand we really liked it. I may add a crib skirt if I have time since I think it would look better when the mattress is raised up.

{5} hand-painted globe – this is a project that is on my to-do list. I am trying to decide whether to keep the continents and paint their names, or paint the entire globe and add a quote.

{6} table – this scallop one from Pillowfortis so whimsical and I love it! Even E exclaimed that it looked like a birthday cake the other day. I know I need a table for a lamp, a clock, my phone, and about a zillion other things. Plus, it will be great for a future playroom.

{7} picture ledge bookshelves – keeping these from Eloise’s room. These are the old IKEA picture ledges (which I love!) and worked well for keeping books on the wall for before naptime or bedtime, but not so many books that it was overwhelming.

{8} rug – this Rags to Riches one from Land of Nod. I had another rug in mind, but as soon as I saw this one (and felt it – it’s so soft!) I knew it was the one! It is tricky to find such a large rug (8 by 10) that is affordable (I splurged on E’s) and kid-appropriate. This one will be great for the nursery for tummy time and lots of floor time for E.

{9} mid-century dresser – keeping the same one from E’s nursery since it worked so well as a changing table! There was so much drawer space which came in handy for when we started cloth diapering, and also when the baby’s clothes are way too little to hang!

{10} bean bag chair (not pictured) – I am thinking of making Eloise a chair (like this) for the nursery since I know she will be spending a lot of time in there with me and Baby Foot. She does well playing quietly and reading to herself and I hope this continues! Plus, how cute is this maps print fabric by Rifle Paper Co?!

{11} mobile (not pictured) – this is the part of the nursery that has me the most stumped, mostly because I don’t like any mobiles… I have considered this one but am also thinking of making one with tiny globes. Stay tuned.

And for Eloise’s room, we are planning on moving a lot of décor from her nursery over to her new room, but here’s a bit more detail:

I am thinking of painting the walls this purple-grey color (London Fog by Benjamin Moore) since E has requested purple walls (though I still need to test it!). I swear it looks more purple in real life; we tested it in our entryway and nixed it because it was so purple!

and I am thinking about reupholstering a chair that we inherited from my grandmother that is currently in our living room, but E loves and I thought it would be fun to put it in her new room (since the glider will stay in the nursery). Even though I have reupholstered, this chair is WAY beyond my skill level, and since there is so much sentimental value with it, there is no way I would take it on. So I am waiting for Calico Corners to have an awesome sale…

It is crazy to think that in a few short months we will have two kids in two rooms, but I know it is right around the corner. I am stashing all of the things for the two new rooms in our old office and at some point in the near future (probably while Aaron is home for Christmas/New Year’s from work) we will start to transition the rooms and then pick a date to move Eloise (maybe early February).

Any mamas out there designing nurseries or big kid rooms? I’d love to hear what you are thinking for the design!